Kosova Crisis Center

KCC NEWS
FREE KOSOVA
Regions
culture
NGO's
links's
about alb-net.com
mailing lists
alb-net.com bookstore
KCC archives
home

link to alb-net

E-MAIL US

LETTERS OF SUPPORT

SERBIAN MASSACRES

 Updated at 9:40 PM on April 23, 1999

The massacred people in Poklek tė Vjetėr identified

Gllogoc, April 23 (Kosovapress)

The victims of the massacre in the village Poklek i Vjetėr, commune of Gllogoc, committed by serbian forces on April 18th-19th of this year, have been identified. During these massacres serbian military-police forces had surrounded the ward of Muqolli family, in Poklek tė Vjetėr and had committed massacres over the albanian civilian population. Up to now, 64 persons have been identified even though most of them were burnt beyond recognition.

From family of Sinan Muqolli, 13 members have been massacred,

From family of Ramadan Muqolli, 11 members have been massacred,

From family of Halil Muqolli, 8 members have been massacred,

From family of Rrahman Muqolli, 7 members have been massacred,

From family of Fehmi Muqolli, 6 members have been massacred,

From family of Tafil Muqolli, 1 member is massacred,

From family of Ali Muqolli, 1 member is massacred ,

From family of Rasim Muqolli, 1 member is massacred,

From family of Istref Muqolli, 3 members have been massacred.

All these massacred persons are from the village Pokleku i Vjetėr, whereas the others are:

From family of Ymer Elshani, from Korrotica e Poshtėme, 6 members have been massacred

From family of Skėnder Hoxha, from Korrotica e Epėrme, 2 members have been massacred

From family of Ejup Caraku, from Dobrosheci, 3 members have been massacred

Meanwhile, three other families are considered as disappeared.

Five other persons have been found badly wounded.

Also, in the village Likoc, the massacred bodies of two albanians over the age of 60, have been found.

60 civilians killed by serbian fascist forces are buried

Prishtinė, April 23 (Kosovapress)

In the village Butoc, near Prishtinė, fighting is still going on.

Civil population has been displaced again from the village Balloc to the village Sfeqėl. There were many civilians killed. Up to now 60 civilians have been buried. We are waiting to publicate their names very soon.

Four enemy paramilitary troops killed today, whereas six others were killed yesterday

Vushtrri, April 23 (Kosovapress)

A fierce battle between units of II Battalion of the 142 Brigade of OZ of Shala in one side and fascist serbian military bands in the other side, have taken place today abut 07.30 o`clock in the morning in the hill in front village Frashėrit tė Vogėl. As result, four serbian paramilitary troops have been killed and their weapons have been taken by our units.

Yesterday in Lubovec, special unit of this zone has prevented serbian barbarious to penetrate in the hills of Qyqavica, and enemy has incurred losses, six other serbian soldiers were killed. From all these attacks, units of 142 Brigade and other unit of KLA have lost one killed soldier and this is Blerim Durmishi, soldier of 142 Brigade and he was buried last night in the village of Vaganicė with high military homages.

The fightings for Melenica, between units of III Battalion of the 141 Brigade "Mehe Uka" and serbian fascist forces, have continued along all night and the are going on as we write this report. Up to now, there is only one soldier wounded from our side whereas enemy has incurred big losses.

There were fightings yesterday in Studime tė Poshtme, between units of IV Battalion of this Brigade and serbian barbarious forces who tried to set the village on fire.

Executed and massacred bodies discovered daily in Mitrovica

Mitrovicė, April 23 (Kosovapress)

Two other albanian civilians were being found in the city of Mitrovica, last night. The witnesses are speaking about more killed and massacred albanians who were killed in their houses and in the streets of this city. The massacred bodies were badly decomposed showing that these people have been killed about two weeks ago.

At least 14 serbian terrorist paramilitaries killed

Deēan, April 23 (Kosovapress)

Lower intensity fighting took place even today in the cross-border zone with Albania. Fast response units of the 134 Brigade, "Bedri Shala", are continuing successfully to progress with their attacks against serbian fascist forces and they are causing a lot of damages to enemy forces in these regions.

In the regions of villages Ruhot, Tėrstenik and its surroundings, the civil population is still in their homes. There also some displaced people from the Mitrovica region.

During these two day latest combations in the villages of Rekė e Keqe, 14 members of the serbian fascist enemy forces were killed, including their leader Milutin Parascevic.

There are a lot of difficulties identifying the massacred persons in the city of Mitrovica

Mitrovicė, April 23 (Kosovapress)

In the streets and in the houses in the city of Mitrovicė, new bodies of the massacred victims caused by the cruel serbian fascism in the begining of April, are being found in the city of Mitrovica.There are a lot of killed and massacred people in this city but the sources of Kosovapress from March 24 and up to now were able to identifiy many persons. The exploration of the region is obstructed by serbian military and paramilitary forces who are everywhere in the city.

These are the victims of serbian terrorism:

Kadri Hajriz Kadriu (44)

Latif Mehmet Berisha (66)

Agim Hajrizi (38)

Mother of Agim Hajrizi (60)

Son of Agim Hajrizi (16)

Hajdin Xani (73)

Rrahim Azem Voca (53)

Haki Kushumliu (46)

Haradin Shaban Hasani (24)

Tahir Zyber Tahiri (54)

Nysret Tahir Tahiri (15)

Fehmi Rexhep Alushi (49)

Hilmi Alush Alushi (32)

Avni Alush Alushi (22)

Rexhep Fehmi Alushi (18)

Qerim Brahim Rexhepi (48)

Ahmet Qerim Rexhepi (17)

Ajet Bajram Xhemajli (63)

Mursel Rexhep Hajra (67)

Eset Behram Hajrizi (52)

Hajdin Rushit Ukshini (53)

Qerime Selim Dauti (37)

Rifadije Ferat Ferizi (45)

Selman Kadri Mustafa (65)

Brahim Rexhep Shala (64)

From 25 identified massacred persons, four are children, three women and seven old age people. As soon as we get informations over the identified persons, we will publish them. Attempts to find and to bury them are going on.

The fighting in the cross-border region

Junik, April 23d (Kosovapress)

Even today, in the vicinity of the cross-border Kosova-Albania, fighting between the KLA forces and the serbian military forces has continued.

During yesterday fighting, there have been 4 people from the serbian forces, while during today there have been two other soldiers.

In the region of Shkozė, an observer of the serbian military forces has also been killed. On this occasion, a quantity of the military observational material has been captured.

The units of KLA, in a progressive way, are doing progresses in the territory that they are putting under control.

A serbian policeman killed in Shalė

Shalė, April 23d (Kosovapress)

There are reports that yesterday in the afternoon, a KLA unit has killed a serbian policeman in Shalė. After this, the serbian terrorist forces positioned here, have attacked with grenades and have machine-gunned toward the highland and villages near.

Massacre of the serbian forces in Graboc of Obiliqit

Obiliq, April 23d (Kosovapress)

From the sources of Kosovapress, we have been informed that in the village of Graboc, commune of Obiliq, on April 18th of this year, the serbian terrorist forces have committed another massacre over the unprotected albanian civil population.

Reports are telling that serbian terrorist after surrounding the village and burnt albanian houses, they have massacred at least 20 albanians.

Our sources have informations only about two massacred persons: Jahir Lladroci, teacher from Gllanasella, uncle of the martyr Fehmi Lladroci and Haxhi Topilla.

Four serbian policemen are killed

Ferizaj, April 23 (Kosovapress)

Yesterday, since 11.30 o`clock and up to 19°°o`clock in the evening, fierce combations have taken place in village of Greme of Ferizaj. The attack was done from the side of Gaqkės and Zaskokut. The front line was long abut two kilometres and the confrontations took place in a distance about 110-200 meters, and some time up to 20 meters.

KLA has reached to secure a safe passage for the albanian civil population. During these struggles, two members of KLA and two civilians are wounded.

While, combations have taken place even today in the Big Hill of Koshare and in Dremjak, where at least four serbian policemen were killed. There have been other bombardments with projectiles over Mollapolc executed from Pines of Ferizaj.

Humanitarian aid blocked by Italian authorities in Bari

Bari, April 23, 1999 (Kosovapress)

Italy is obstructing the albanian community living abroad, in their struggles to help deported albanians from Kosova, now placed in Albania. For one week, Italian custom authorities have blocked 2 trucks and 5 other automobiles full of humanitarian aids collected by albanian humanitarian association " Nėna Terėzė" in Switzerland.

Vehicles loaded with flour. sugar, salt, macaroni, rice, oil and clothes, were confiscated by Italian custom authorities of Bari, without any justification

Although, all the requested documentation for transportation these aids was completed by the humanitarian association, Italian authorities didn`t allow this humanitarian aid to continue to Albania.

Another Kosova Albanian Institution Rising From the Ashes

TETOVE, FYROM, April 23 (AFP) - Kosovo's main Albanian-language newspaper, Koha Ditore, is set to rise from the ashes in Macedonia, following the destruction of its headquarters in Pristina and the expulsion of its staff.

"It's a matter of our survival, of the survival of our Kosovar identity," editor Ardin Arifaj said, explaining why he and his team are working night and day to relaunch the paper. The night the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation began its air war on Yugoslavia on March 24, Serbian special forces killed the caretaker and destroyed the premises of Koha Ditore. Shortly afterwards the paper's printing works went up in flames, in a fire set by the Serbs. Before its destruction in the "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovo's Albanian majority Koha Ditore had sales of 30,000 in the southern Serbian province and as many again in European cities with a strong ethnic Albanian population. The ambition of Arifaj and the paper's owner and editor-in-chief, Baton Haxhiu, is to start again in small rented offices in Tetovo, an Albanian-populated town in western Macedonia. The newsroom already contains a dozen brand new computers, a scanner and other computer equipment, all bought out of the personal funds of the ten or so journalists who managed to escape from Kosovo. "It is very important to show the world another image of the Kosovars than babies crying in refugee camps or old people dying of ill-treatment," Arifaj said. "It's vital to show that we Kosovars are a living people, despite what is happening," said Arifaj, 25, who also saw terrible things before he got out of Kosovo on April 1. "It's a question of showing that we can still organise a political life and maintain the spirit of Kosovo. It's about keeping alive Kosovo's identity which we risk losing." Baton Haxhiu was in Paris seeking financial aid. On Thursday, the French foreign ministry said France would finance 60 percent of the cost of reviving the paper. Haxhiu put the cost at between one million and 1.2 million francs (170,000 and 200,000 dollars), Meanwhile his team was working feverishly to prepare the first number of the new paper for publication in a few days. Macedonia's deputy prime minister and minister of labour, Bedredin Ibraimi, pledged to give the paper all the necessary government authorisation, including work permits for the staff. "The Kosovo Albanians are our brothers, we must help them," he said in an interview with AFP. "This newspaper will be precious in informing the 140,000 refugees from Kosovo in Macedonia, its team can count on my support." Various foreign embassies have promised financial and material aid, but so far the only concrete donation is the telephone their neighbour has loaned them for free, and packages of tea and coffee brought by sympathisers. The editor said the Koha Ditore was still able to obtain information on the situation inside Kosovo. "There are still a few people we know there, and there are a few telephones which work." The four-to-six page paper which will appear daily will take care not to comment on internal affairs in Macedonia, where the ethnic balance between Albanians and other communities is on a knife edge. "We have no intention of changing our editorial line," Arifaj said. "As before, we intend to be an independent newspaper. We will publish different points of view, including from the international community or fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army." The articles will be fired with the hope that one day Koha Ditore can once more be printed in Pristina, the Kosovo capital.

OSCE: Serb atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo "beyond imagination" (AFP)

SKOPJE, April 23 (AFP) - Serb atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo are "beyond imagination", an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) official, Jorgen Grunnet, said Friday. "No one had imagined anything on that scale," said Grunnet who is OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) spokesman in Skopje. Grunnet added that "everyone was very surprised by the extent of the operations" carried out by Serb forces against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo after NATO airstrikes began on March 24. In a report issued in Skopje after hearing some 250 Kosovo Albanians from Mitrovica, Pristina and Gnjilane areas, the KVM said reports indicated increased violence in eastern Kosovo, including alleged summary executions. "Reports indicate a pattern of intimidation and harassment, consisting of VJ (Yugoslav army), MUP (police units) or paramilitary units," the report said. Also reported were "detailed accounts of maiming of the victims and mutilations of the dead", the KVM said. "Reports include throat-cutting, cutting out eyes, cutting off breasts, nose, fingers, heads, and/or feet, slicing body parts and carving of Serb nationalistic signs on chest, forehead or other parts of the body," the KVM report said.

Albania: you can choose your friends, but not your neighbours (AFP)

TIRANA, April 23 (AFP) - The Serbs might be wreaking havoc on its ethnic cousins in Kosovo and lobbing shells across the border, but neighboring Albania has no intention of picking a direct fight with Serbia. Perhaps a wise move for an impoverished country with more swagger than swat in its military and notions of defense that once included a nationwide shield of pointed spikes to impale airborne invaders. This former hardline communist state is relishing its role as cheerleader for NATO's month-old campaign to curb Serb violence against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Yet it clearly feels better on the sidelines. "Belgrade wants to push us into war to change the nature of the conflict, transforming it into a confrontation between two states," President Rexhep Mejdani told a French newspaper this week. "We do not want to play that game." Albanian officials all call loudly for an intensification of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's airstrikes against the Belgrade regime. They are also leading the clamor for a ground offensive to put an end to the chaos in Kosovo. Still there is no sign the Albanian army, estimated by Western experts to count some 10,000 regular troops, is mobilizing for the conflict. There are no shows of force, no callup of conscripts, not even a significant presence at the troubled northern border with Kosovo. Deputy Prime Minister Ilir Meta attibutes Albania's low profile to NATO, which has taken over the airport here and is in the process of a major buildup of forces. "The presence of NATO in the Balkans has prevented all the neighboring countries from being involved in the war against (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic," Meta told AFP on Friday. But Albania, Europe's poorest country with a population of around three million people, appears to have neither the resources nor the inclination to join in the fray, and is relying heavily on NATO for protection. At the height of the communist regime run by Enver Hoxha from 1944 to 1989, Albania boasted some 60,000-70,000 regular troops, although they were poorly trained and suffered from a lack of fuel and other necessities. As Albania retreated progressively into itself, going from Soviet client state to Chinese protege to European hermit, the military went steadily downhill, a victim of neglect and ever-dwindling foreign aid. Albania developed the Maoist notion of a "people's war" to defend itself against a feared invasion from either the West or its erstwhile allies in the Warsaw Pact, which Tirana abandoned in 1968. It relied on sealed borders and rugged interior terrain to thwart invaders. Hoxha also built more than 600,000 bunkers, which remain today as a major tourist curiosity, and had units of "Young Pioneers" trained to attach long pointed spikes to treetops to spear foreign paratroopers. The post-communist years have been lean for the Albanian armed forces. Even the start of the Balkans conflict in 1992 has brought it little more than some training and logistics aid, and no substantive deliveries of equipment. The current troop strength is well below the 25,000 sought by NATO as part of the Partnership for Peace program which Albania joined in 1994. Military spending accounts for 3.7 percent of the national budget, down from 12 percent in the army's "heyday." Officials are still counting on their people to make a stand against the Serbs if necessary. Indeed, the population is undoubtedly well armed after rioters broke into army warehouses two years ago and made off with some one million Kalashnikov rifles and other light arms. The question remains, however, whether Albania might be taking a risk in putting all its chips on its relationship with NATO in the Kosovo crisis. Foreign Minister Paskal Milo doesn't think so and expects rewards for Tirana's cooperation in the form of increased integration into the European club. But Milo demonstrated a healthy dose of Balkan pragmatism that could also govern his country's military posture. "There is an old proverb," he said. "You can choose your friends, but not your neighbors."

Blair: Milosevic must accept a "proper international force" in Kosovo (AFP)

WASHINGTON, April 22 (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic must accept a "proper international force" in Kosovo if he wants NATO air strikes to end. Blair said a Milosevic offer to accept an "international presence in Kosovo under the auspices of the UN and with Russian participation" made to Russian special envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin earlier in the day would have to be studied. "We would have to see the details of what Mr Chernomyrdin has brought back from Belgrade because we juts don't know enough about it at the moment," Blair said in an interview with CNN's "Larry King Live" show to be broadcast later Thursday. But, he said the only offer NATO would accept would be one in which Milosevic agreed 100 percent with the alliance's oft-stated conditions. "The NATO demands are absolutely clear: Milosevic has got to stop his ethnic cleansing, he has got to get his troops and his military ... out of there, and the (refugees) have to be escorted back to their homes and their villages by a proper international force," Blair said. "We have to know that he is going to accede to the NATO demands in full. There is no doubt about that at all." Earlier Thursday, Chernomyrdin told the ITAR-TASS news agency that Milosevic had agreed to a presence which would include Russian participation. "It remains to be determined what the international forces will be, from which country, but most important is that Russia must be represented," the agency quoted Chernomyrdin as saying after he met with Milosevic in Belgrade. But ITAR-TASS then issued a correction, saying he had spoken of "international organisations" rather than forces, and of a "mission" to Kosovo. The Russian envoy, who left Belgrade for Moscow after the day of talks, told ITAR-TASS that negotiations were expected to continue on Friday with NATO leaders by telephone or with a NATO representative in Moscow. International reactions were mixed, with leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization gathering for a summit in Washington including Blair, US President Bill Clinton and NATO Secretary General Javier Solana largely agreeing it was a gesture which did not go far enough. Blair said in Chicago that the NATO summit in Washington this weekend would reaffirm the western alliance's resolve to achieve all its goals in Kosovo. "I'm certain that this weekend's summit in Washington ...will make our unity and our absolute resolve clear for all to see," Blair told Chicago business leaders. "Success is the only exit strategy I am prepared to consider. "We will not have succeeded until an international force has entered Kosovo and allowed the (ethnic Albanian) refugees to return to their homes," Blair added. "Milosevic will have no veto on the entry of this international force," Blair said.

NATO leaders pledge to 'fight to prevail' on Kosovo (AP)

7.29 p.m. ET (2330 GMT) April 23, 1999 By Terence Hunt, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Western leaders transformed a 50th anniversary celebration of NATO into a somber war council Friday, pledging to intensify military strikes against Yugoslavia and vowing "no compromise'' on demands that Slobodan Milosevic withdraw his troops from Kosovo. "When we fight, we fight to prevail,'' President Clinton declared.

Without dissent, presidents and prime ministers of 19 nations pledged that the 1.4 million ethnic Albanian refugees forced from their homes will be able to return to "live in peace and security.''

"We will not allow this campaign of terror to succeed,'' the leaders asserted. "NATO is determined to prevail.''

In a flag-bedecked, columned auditorium — the same place where NATO was born on April 4, 1949 — the heads of state and government walked to a podium to sign the Washington declaration, a "vision statement'' of the challenges awaiting NATO in the next century. It said the alliance will have to confront terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction even as it fulfills its original mandate for collective defense.

Kosovo hung in the air, dampening the celebratory spirit.

"This alliance, which was forged in adversity, is today confronted with a new challenge in Kosovo, and I know it will overcome this challenge with success,'' French President Jacques Chirac said.

A summit statement on Kosovo made no mention of the possibility of sending in ground troops — a subject on which alliance leaders are divided. A U.S. official said the matter came up briefly in a few presentations but there was a general sense the air campaign was working. Even so, they endorsed updating NATO's assessment of a ground invasion and letting the public know that all options were being studied.

The statement also pledged to intensify economic sanctions and welcomed an oil embargo imposed by the European Union. But it did not embrace a naval blockade proposed by the United States to keep oil shipments away.

France and other governments questioned the legality of intercepting tankers at sea without a formal war declaration, a U.S. official said. Several allies favored extending the air campaign to bombing oil-truck convoys driving into Serbia.

The leaders directed their defense ministers to determine how NATO could halt the delivery of war material — including by launching "maritime operations.'' Sandy Berger, Clinton's national security adviser, said there was a mandate to develop an interdiction system. But American officials were not optimistic about reaching an agreement by the summit's end Sunday.

Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander for Europe, flew in from Brussels, Belgium, and briefed the leaders on the 31-day bombing campaign against Milosevic. "We're winning. He's losing. And he knows it,'' Clark said. NATO kept pounding Yugoslavia as the summit opened, striking Serbia state television and knocking it off the air for a while.

"It is important that damage continues,'' British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, a critic of NATO's policy toward Yugoslavia, said that using ground forces would aggravate tensions rather than ease them. And he said he told Clinton that prolonging the air campaign would make it more difficult to bring about peace.

The summit welcomed three new member nations that had been ruled by Moscow during the Cold War: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. "By joining NATO, this century of suffering and uncertainty is finally over,'' said Hungarian President Arpad Goncz. Poland's president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, said, "The dreams of our fathers and grandfathers have now come true. ... The doors to NATO must stay open.''

The summit stretched from a three-hour morning meeting in the sprawling Ronald Reagan building — second in size only to the Pentagon — to a White House dinner in the chandeliered East Room.

Congressional leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, staged their own welcome in the Rotunda for NATO's newest members. The summit also brought to Washington the leaders of nearly two dozen nations sharing a partnership with NATO — although Russia and Belarus boycotted in protest of the bombing of Yugoslavia.

Without equivocation, summit leaders pledged to stop Milosevic and set out the conditions he must meet to call off NATO's airstrikes: Stop all violence, withdraw his military and police forces, agree to the stationing of an international military force, permit the safe return of all refugees and accept autonomy for Kosovo.

The statement warned Milosevic not to widen the war to frontline states such as Albania and Macedonia, promising that NATO would respond. It said the alliance would suspend airstrikes once Yugoslavia had "demonstrably begun to withdraw its forces from Kosovo according to a precise and rapid timetable.''

Still, Gen. Clark acknowledged, "President Milosevic has shown a willingness to tolerate a high level of damage.''

Berger said the United States was pleased by the summit statement: "The almost universal chorus was: 'We're going to continue the air campaign, we're going to intensify the air campaign and we're going to win.'''

The allies dismissed a Russian initiative to settle the conflict since Belgrade still refused to accept a NATO-led military force to enforce peace. Still, the leaders said Moscow had "an important role to play in the search for a solution to the conflict in Kosovo.''

The leaders said they would seek a U.N. Security Council resolution to require the withdrawal of Serb forces. But they have not sought approval for the airstrikes from the Security Council, where Russia has veto power.

NATO Approves Naval Searches For Oil (AP)

9.04 p.m. ET (104 GMT) April 23, 1999 WASHINGTON — NATO defense ministers Friday authorized allied naval forces in principle to board and search ships suspected of delivering oil and arms to Yugoslavia, a senior NATO official said.

He said the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Gen. Wesley Clark, had been instructed to draw up rules of engagement for a stop-and-search operation, which would have to be approved by the NATO council in the coming days.

"The ministers authorized SACEUR this evening to take all of the measures necessary to establish the mechanisms for a visit-and-search regime,'' the official told reporters at the NATO summit in Washington.

He said Clark would "make recommendations to the North Atlantic Council in the coming days as to the ways in which such a visit-and-search regime could be carried out and recommend appropriate rules of engagement to be approved by the North Atlantic Council, but the principle has been agreed.''

The NATO commander would also look at other ways of ensuring that refined oil products did not reach the Serb army, he said without giving details.

The official said the alliance believed there was sufficient basis in international law for such action without a specific U.N. Security Council resolution. He did not say what action NATO naval forces would take if a tanker was found to be carrying oil and refused to turn back.